Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-05-09
LOST OPPORTUNITIES.

LUST USfORTUNiTiES.
The Twenty international Coz
vention of the Young Mems Christian As
ISOLATION begins in San Francisco to-mor-
row. 1t will bring together upwards of
800 delegates from widely distinct parts of
the continent. These men will be impressed
by what they see in California and go
away as SO many witnesses for or against
us. 1t IS essential, therefore, that they
shall not be misinformed concerning the
State, and that they form no -misconcep-
ton of it. They should be got out of San
Francisco for some days and given taste
of other climatic conditions than there
prevail. They ought to be taken up and
down the great valleys, shown something
concerning our resources and soil, and its
capacity, and our claims for desirable i'm
migration.
Unless We are greatly mistaken in our
estimate of their energy and enterprise,
Los Angeles people will be found arrang-
ing for the delegates to view the southern
region. The central and north sections
ought to be first in the field. They have
done very little of this sort of work, I'M
fortunately, and it is because there is lack
both of public spirit and of organization.
1t is as well that the whole truth be
confessed-that little or no effort ever has
been made to take visitors up the Sacra-
mento valley. They come into and 90
out Of the State practically ignorant of
the garden spots of the State; ignorant of
the most salubrious, inviting and produc-
tive regions of California. They enter and
depart from the State in seven cases out
of ten, with the idea that they have seen
all there is in it worthy of examination,
when they have been shown not 1.-THE.
1t may be too late now to organize to
take the delegates of the Convention
named up the valley or into the foothill
region, and it is very unfortunate that it
is too late. Here are 800 men of broad intel
ligence, representing some of the best social
and business elements of the world men
with trained habits Of thought and obser-
walton, and whose testimony could be made
to do California vast deal OF good But
beyond a trip or two around the bay and
glance at few fertile bay coasts, and pos
sibly a run southwark, they all see nothing
of California. They will go away practi-
cally Ignorant of that modern paradise,
the Napa valley; of the most wonderful
fruit-growing section on earth, that of the
west hill and valley region of Solano; of
the grain fields of Colusa; of the garden
farming of Butte; of the vine, cereal and
grazing lands of Tehama and Shasta; of
the rich bottoms of Suffer of the semi
tropical growth of the northern and CEN
trail foothills; of the marvellous fruit and
hop bottom land of Sacramento and her
upland fruit and yine-growing practically
Ignorant of Placer, Yuba, Yolo, Sonoma,
San joaquin, Amador, and other counties
that offer to men the best and cheapest
lands and the most equable climates known
upon the continent
So far as Sacramento is concerned the
delegates might easily be brought here and
given glimpse at least of one section of
the Sacramento valley and afforded a
glance at the foothill industries. A bet
ter investment our people could scarcely
make, for these delegates constitute the
first body of representative men who have
in recent years come to California at ex-
actly the right time; at precisely the day
and hourw when the whole extent of the land
puts its best foot forward.
But if this large body of visitors departs
without seeing California as they should
see it, the fact should serve as stimulus to
prevent many such results in the case of
other large bodies of visitors. They are
coming and going, in fact, daily, and by
the hundreds and thousands; coming and
going with the idea, for the most part.
that, having seen the Los Angeles section !;
having ridden from there to San Francisco
and endured its dust and fog some days :;
having been whisked up to Sacramento
with probably two-hours' pause here, to-
wards the close of day, they have seen Cal
ifornia. That they have not; that they
depart ignorant of observation of the love
hest and most inviting sections of the
State, is wholly due to the inactivity and
sluggish content of our neighbors of the
north and ourselves of the central section,
for a. very little public-spirited energy
rightly directed would make the Sacra-
mento VALLEY part and parcel of the tour
of every excursion party that comes to the
coast